The video sequences from the film Gladiator and the soundtrack make you realise just how much that slot games have come on. The addition of Gladiator and more recently, the MGM-licenced King Kong slot released by online games developer Playtech has upped the bar in slot machine development. While some of the older style games like Rainbow Riches and the popular Reel King fruit machine still cut the mustard for many players, the new generation of video slots that the Gladiator slot represents is definitely where the future is headed.
Similar games
Since Gladiator was released in 2008, Playtech themselves have released 3 further games that bear resemblences to the game-play. The obvious one is the Gladiator Jackpot slot which simply adds a progressive jackpot into the equation but cuts the RTP of the base game by over 2% is so-doing. They also produced a game called "Atlantis Queen" which is a direct clone and only available in some casinos.Finally, they also created a very decent slot called "John Wayne" (not to be confused with the very different WMS Spinning Streak slot of the same name) which has different game-play but combines similar features in the free spins.
The "expanding scatters" concept has in fact become quite widely used in other Playtech games like "Rome & Glory", "Captain's Treasure Pro" and "Thai Paradise" which you will find in the download version of all Playtech casinos. The concept was "borrowed" from Novomatic's very popular Book Of Ra slot of course and while you don't get it every time you hit Gladiator's feature, it is the main reason to play the game in my opinion.
And finally, although very different in game-play to Gladiator, if you like the design of the slot then check out some of the Playtech Marvel-themed slots too including Iron Man 2 and The Hulk which are available to play for free here at Games & Fuit Machines too.